Question

Charlie is a car salesman. He earns $800 plus a 9% commission on all of his sales for the week. If Charlie received a paycheck for $1,916 this week, how much were his total sales?

Select one:
A. $5,300
B. $890
C. $12,400
D. $13,750

Answer 1

C. $12,400

Explanation:

$1116 of Charlie's paycheck represented 9% of his sales, so his sales were ...

... $1116/0.09 = $12,400

_____

In generic terms, when you have ...

value = fraction × (whole amount)

you can divide by the fraction to find the whole amount:

value/fraction = (whole amount)

Here, the value is the portion of Charlie's pay that is due to the commission, and the fraction is the commission rate. The whole amount is the quantity of sales we're trying to find.